#BlackLivesMatter

SOTU Was Not The Speech Black Lives Matter Wanted To Hear

January 14, 2016 Kira Lerner, www.thinkprogress.org Educate! #BlackLivesMatter, Black Lives Matter (BLM), Criminal Justice, Finance and the Economy, Racism

By Kira Lerner for Think Progress - Last year, Black Lives Matter activists made it a practice to interrupt politician’s speeches to chant the name of their movement and to demand that elected officials recognize the high rate that black men and women are killed at the hands of police. Tonight, one of the movement’s founders will be in the audience at President Obama’s final State of the Union. Though she won’t be interrupting the president, Alicia Garza, who was invited as a guest of Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA), told ThinkProgress that she wants Obama to address various issues that affect black Americans including criminal justice reform, voting rights, and immigration.

Police Chief Wants Officer Charged For Killing Unarmed Man

January 12, 2016 Carimah Townes, www.thinkprogress.org Resist! #BlackLivesMatter, Black Lives Matter (BLM), killed by police, Los Angeles, Police violence

By Carimah Townes for Think Progress - Between 2000 and 2014, the LAPD shot an average of one person every week. Yet no officer has been charged for a fatal shooting in the last 15 years. If Police Chief Charlie Beck gets his way, that could change soon. Despite push-back from his colleagues, Beck has recommended that Officer Clifford Proctor be charged for shooting and killing an unarmed homeless man in Venice last year. Proctor and his partner said Brendon Glenn was harassing customers and confronted a bouncer. The officers claimed Proctor shot Glenn while he was reaching for one of their weapons. But sources who saw video surveillance of the shooting told the Los Angeles Times that the police officers had successfully brought Glenn down to the ground when Proctor walked away and fired the gun. According to the anonymous sources, Glenn tried to stand up and was struggling before he was killed, but did not act in a way that explained the shooting.

Newsletter: After The Crash…

January 9, 2016 Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers, www.PopularResistance.org Newsletter #BlackLivesMatter, Banks, Black Lives Matter (BLM), Capitalism, carbon free nuclear free, Climate Change, Community Banks, Credit Unions, Debt, Debt-Free Money, Democracy, Economic Democracy, Education, Eric Holder, Federal Reserve, Finance and the Economy, Foreclosures, Guaranteed basic income, Income, Income inequality, Infrastructure, Living Wage, Medicare, Medicare for all, Minimum Wage, Occupy Movement, Plutocracy, Poverty, Public Banking, Student Debt, TPP, Tuition, Unemployment

By Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers for Popular Resistance. The economic agenda described here would create a radical transformation of the economy from a top-down system designed for the wealthiest, to a botton-up system that creates a foundation for an economy that benefits all. Putting in place this economy would move us from a plutocratic economy to a democratized economy where people have economic control over their lives. It is a radical shift – how can it happen? There is only one path – the people must be educated, organized and mobilized to demand it. We need to change the political culture to one where the necessities of the people and protection of the planet are the priorities of the economy. If predictions are correct, the next economic collapse will deeper and more damaging than the 2008 collapse. It will be a tremendous opportunity to demand radical economic change. It is one the movement for economic, racial and environmental justice should be preparing for now.

Pursuing Murder Indictment For Cop Who Killed Unarmed Vet

January 8, 2016 Jamiles Lartey and Ciara McCarthy, www.theguardian.com Resist! #BlackLivesMatter, Black Lives Matter (BLM), Georgia, killed by police, Police violence

By Jamiles Lartey and Ciara McCarthy for The Guardian - A prosecutor in Georgia is to seek two indictments for murder against a police officer who shot and killed Anthony Hill, an unarmed black man who was naked when he died. DeKalb district attorney Robert James said he would ask a grand jury to indict Officer Robert Olsen of the DeKalb County police department, accused of shooting Hill on 9 March last year while responding to a call of a man behaving erratically outside a suburban Atlanta apartment complex.

Crowd Protests Fatal Police Shooting In Dearborn

January 6, 2016 Mark Hicks and James David Dickson, www.detroitnews.com Resist! #BlackLivesMatter, Black Lives Matter (BLM), killed by police, Michigan, Police violence

By Mark Hicks and James David Dickson for The Detroit News - Dearborn — Chanting “no justice, no peace” and hoisting signs with messages such as “Black Lives Matter,” more than 100 demonstrators strode through Dearborn on Monday night, protesting the death last month of a Detroit man who was shot by a Dearborn police officer. Bundled against the frigid air, they marched past traffic and raised their voices alongside drumbeats to protest the death of Kevin Matthews as well as police practices they believe have contributed to other such deaths.

#BlackBrunchChi Protests Disrupt Lunch At Restaurants

January 3, 2016 Ed Komenda and Alisa Hauser, www.dnainfo.com Resist! #BlackLivesMatter, Black Lives Matter (BLM), Chicago

By Ed Komenda and Alisa Hauser DNA Info. Activists added a twist to protesting police violence Friday by streaming into North Side restaurants to disrupt lunch as part of an effort dubbed #BlackBrunchChi on Twitter. Hoping to create more awareness about police brutality, protesters walked into theSummer House in Lincoln Park and Dove’s Luncheonette in Wicker Park, among other restaurants. About 50 protesters marched down parts of Damen and Milwaukee Avenues in Wicker Park around noon to 2 p.m. Friday, chanting “I believe that we will win” and “F--- police.” No arrests were made during the protest, according to Officer Janel Sedevic, a Chicago police spokeswoman on Saturday. Chicago Police said they were aware of the protests and monitoring the movement. Standing outside of Kanela Brunch Club, 1408 N. Milwaukee Ave., an organizer said the #BlackBrunchChi march was organized by Black Lives Matter, Black Youth Project 100, Assata’s Daughters and Southside Together Organizing for Power (STOP).

Why Small Debts Matter So Much To Black Lives

January 2, 2016 Paul Kiel, www.propublica.org Educate! #BlackLivesMatter, Black Lives Matter (BLM), Debt

By Paul Kiel for Pro Publica - It is not unreasonable to attribute these perils to discrimination. But there’s no question that the main reason small financial problems can have such a disproportionate effect on black families is that, for largely historical reasons rooted in racism, they have far smaller financial reserves to fall back on than white families. The most recent federal survey in 2013 put the difference in net worth between the typical white and black family at $131,000. That’s a big number, but here’s an even more troubling statistic: About one-quarter of African-American families had less than $5 in reserve. Low-income whites had about $375.

Climate Activists Can Learn A Lot From Black Lives Matter

January 2, 2016 Kate Aronoff, www.wagingnonviolence.org Strategize! #BlackLivesMatter, Black Lives Matter (BLM), Climate Change

By Kate Aronoff for Waging Nonviolence - Yesterday afternoon, Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Tim McGinty told a cramped room of reporters that no officers would be tried for the killing of Tamir Rice. The announcement came just over a year after the 12-year-old was gunned down by police for waving around a toy rifle in a Cleveland park. Within two seconds of arriving at the scene, officer Timothy Loehmann had fired two very real bullets at Rice — including the one that killed him. Calling Rice’s death a “perfect storm of human error, mistakes and miscommunications by all involved that day,” McGinty spent several minutes laying out the ways in which the child should have known better than to play in a park while being black.

Indigenous Solidarity With #BlackLivesMatter

January 2, 2016 Matt Remle, www.lastrealindians.com Strategize! #BlackLivesMatter, Black Lives Matter (BLM), Indigenous Peoples

By Matt Remle for Last Real Indians - Like the Idle No More movement in Canada, the #BlackLivesMatter movement was founded by women. In response to the murder of 17-year old Trayvon Martin in Florida in 2012 by neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman, Alicia Garza, Patrisse Cullors and Opal Tometi issued a call to action for the Black community to address the anti-Black racism that manifested throughout the trail, one that seemed more interested in placing Trayvon on trial for his own murder, and that permeates throughout society.

Oregonians Protest Reinstating Cop Fired Over Fatal Shooting

January 1, 2016 Andrew Theen, www.oregonlive.com Resist! #BlackLivesMatter, Black Lives Matter (BLM), police brutality, Portland

By Andrew Theen for The Oregonian - A group of protesters gathered Thursday morning outside Portland City Hall to oppose a court ruling this week requiring the city rehire Ron Frashour, a police officer who was fired after he fatally shot an unarmed black man in the back. The Albina Ministerial Alliance Coalition for Justice and Police Reform organized Thursday's demonstration, one day after the Oregon Court of Appeals sided with an arbitrator's ruling to reinstate Frashour. 2012 Statement From Marva Davis, The Mother Of Aaron CampbellKate Lore, a social justice minister with the First Unitarian Church of Portland, reads a statement from 2012 by Marva Davis about Portland Police officer Ron Frashour and the shooting death of Davis's son, Aaron Campbell.

Former Manhattan Prosecutor Sounds Off On Tamir Rice Case

January 1, 2016 Staff, www.occupythebronx.org Educate! #BlackLivesMatter, Black Lives Matter (BLM), Tamir Rice

By Staff of Occupy The Bronx - On Monday, an Ohio grand jury decided not to bring charges against two police officers in the 2014 shooting death of Tamir Rice. The day after the decision was announced, Ikiesha Al-Shabazz Whittaker, a former Manhattan prosecutor, posted a video on Facebook to express her frustration with the country’s legal system. She also explained, in her expletive-laden rant, why grand juries don’t indict police officers. “I know some things that I don’t think you guys know,” she says at the beginning of the video, which has been viewed more than 1.3 million times in 48 hours. “I want to share it with you because my level of outrage and frustration is at an all-time high. I don’t want to be in this fucking country no more. I just want to fucking leave.”

Black Lives Matter’s Biggest Moments Of 2015

January 1, 2016 Deron Dalton, www.dailydot.com Resist! #BlackLivesMatter, Black Lives Matter (BLM)

By Deron Dalton for The Daily Dot - It’s been a big year for Black Lives Matter. The movement is more than two years old now, but it continues to reach new heights in the year since it became a household name after the death of Michael Brown in August 2014. Since then, Black Lives Matter became more distinguished as a network. It spans 26 chapters in three countries and allied with other black organizations. In 2015, it tackled a number of challenges: the affirmation of all black lives, co-optation, racist trolling, misconceptions and counter-narrative arguments.

What Can Be Done About Prosecutorial Misconduct?

December 31, 2015 Staff, www.tjcoalition.org Create! #BlackLivesMatter, Black Lives Matter (BLM), Tamir Rice

By Staff of Transformative Justice Coalition - I am sure that you were as stunned and disappointed as so many of us were by the grand jury’s non-indictment of the officers involved in the download (1)death of Tamir Rice. However, this story is actually one of gross prosecutorial misconduct and pro-police bias. My statement below addresses this all too common problem and makes some policy and action step recommendations to address this national crisis of police officers not being held accountable for slayings of African Americans, Latinos and Native Americans. With your support the Transformative Justice Coalition can work in the years to come to make these vital reforms a reality.

Cops Beat Mother & Daughter Participating In BLM Protest

December 31, 2015 Esther Yu-Hsi Lee, www.thinkprogress.org Resist! #BlackLivesMatter, Black Lives Matter (BLM), Minneapolis, Protesters

By Esther Yu-Hsi Lee for Think Progress - A mother and daughter are suing the city of Minneapolis, Minnesota, alleging that Minneapolis police officers beat them with nightsticks during ongoing protests in November over the fatal shooting of a black man, according to a lawsuit obtained by the Star Tribune. Jamar Clark’s death sparked tense “Black Lives Matter” protests that fit the shooting into a longstanding pattern of police abuse in the city. At least one of the officers implicated in Clark’s death was previously “sued for police brutality by a black man who alleged that Ringgenberg had choked him,” City Pages reported.

Cleveland Police To Review Shooting Of 12-Year-Old Tamir Rice

December 30, 2015 Kim Palmer, www.reuters.com Educate! #BlackLivesMatter, Black Lives Matter (BLM), Cleveland, Tamir Rice

By Kim Palmer for Reuters - Cleveland police will review from start-to-finish the fatal shooting of 12-year-old Tamir Rice to determine if the two officers involved or others should face disciplinary action in the November 2014 incident, officials said on Tuesday. A grand jury on Monday declined to bring criminal charges against the officers in the death of Rice, who was brandishing a replica gun in a park before an officer shot him, drawing a protest on Tuesday afternoon in downtown Cleveland. "People are very upset about it and I believe legitimately and rightfully so," Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson said of Rice's shooting and other police-involved incidents around the United States.

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